Unsurprisingly, there aren’t any big surprises in the squad. Aly “The Teeth” Cissokho gets his first call-up, but it was somewhat expected in light of Gaël Clichy’s injury. Loïc Remy gets the nod in favor of Bafetimbi Gomis, but again, that’s not really surprising because Les Bleus are currently short on wide players. Yoann Gourcuff and Sidney Govou return after missing out on the last qualifiers due to injury.

More notable are the absences. The biggest one is Patrick Vieira, who hasn’t been playing regularly at his club and has also been struggling on and off with injuries. Though his recent performances were positive, Domenech didn’t think it was enough to justify his inclusion in the squad (Vieira is not happy about that, btw). Franck Ribery is still out due to a knee injury, and despite Samir Nasri recently making his comeback for Arsenal after a long injury layoff, he was left out as well.

Totally unrelated, but here is an interesting fact I discovered the other day: Sidney Govou has scored 10 goals for France in 42 appearances. Compare that to Nicolas Anelka, who’s scored 13 goals in 61 appearances. Three less goals with 20 less appearances – and I’m sure Anelka has had more starts as well. It’s weird to think about Govou in a productive light, isn’t it?

Full list after the jump.

Gardiens de But
Cédric Carrasso (Bordeaux)
Hugo Lloris (Lyon)
Stève Mandanda (Marseille)

Défenseurs
Eric Abidal (Barcelona)
Aly Cissokho (Lyon)
Julien Escude (Sevilla)
Patrice Evra (Manchester United)
Rod Fanni (Rennes)
William Gallas (Arsenal)
Bakary Sagna (Arsenal)
Sébastien Squillaci (Sevilla)

Milieux de terrain
Abou Diaby (Arsenal)
Alou Diarra (Bordeaux)
Lassana Diarra (Real Madrid)
Yoann Gourcuff (Bordeaux)
Florent Malouda (Chelsea)
Moussa Sissoko (Toulouse)
Jérémy Toulalan (Lyon)

Attaquants
Nicolas Anelka (Chelsea)
Karim Benzema (Real Madrid)
André-Pierre Gignac (Toulouse)
Sidney Govou (Lyon)
Thierry Henry (Barcelona)
Loïc Remy (Nice)

You know. The ones who get all the press.

Too bad you can’t play a match on paper.

Gardiens de but
Shay Given (Manchester City, Ang)
Keiren Westwood (Conventry City, Ang)
Joe Murphy (Scunthorpe United, Ang)

Défenseurs
John O’Shea (Manchester United, Ang)
Richard Dunne (Aston Villa, Ang)
Stephen Kelly (Fulham, Ang)
Kevin Kilbane (Hull City, Ang)
Eddie Nolan (Preston North End, Ang)
Sean St. Ledger (Middlesbrough, Ang)
Paul McShane (Hull City, Ang)
Darren O’Dea (Reading, Ang)

Milieux de terrain
Aiden McGeady (Celtic Glasgow, Eco)
Damien Duff (Fulham, Ang)
Darron Gibson (Manchester United, Ang)
Glenn Whelan (Stoke City, Ang)
Keith Andrews (Blackburn Rovers, Ang)
Liam Miller (Hibernian, Eco)
Stephen Hunt (Hull City, Ang)
Andy Keogh (Wolverhampton, Ang)
Liam Lawrence (Stoke City, Ang)

Attaquants
Kevin Doyle (Wolverhampton, Ang)
Robbie Keane (Tottenham Hotspurs, Ang)
Shane Long (Reading, Ang)
Leon Best (Coventry Cirty, Ang)
Anthony Stokes (Hibernian, Eco)

And Raymond Domenech is kissing the boots of UEFA for deciding to seed the draw.

France, the 1998 world champions, 2000 European champions and beaten World Cup finalists in 2006, will have the advantage of playing the second leg on home soil against an Ireland side coached by Giovanni Trapattoni.

While France, the highest ranked team in the playoffs at nine, will be favourites, the pressure will be on coach Raymond Domenech who came underfire during a qualifying tournament in which they were outshone by group winners Serbia.

He will be wary of an Ireland side who went through a qualifying group containing world champions Italy and Bulgaria without losing a match.

“We know what we have to do,” Domenech told RTL radio. “The goal was always to qualify for the World Cup, whoever we faced. We know Ireland. They’re very much like England, they all play in the Premier League.

NO SURPRISES

“The France players know them well from having played either with or against them. There won’t be any surprises. We know what’s coming.

“They’re a team who have not lost in qualifying, who drew with Italy in their last game after conceding a late goal. We know they’re tough, but so are we.”

Let’s not get overconfident; this won’t be a cakewalk. They’re going to play defensively and try to take it on set pieces. France frequently sucks against both defensive teams and set pieces.

But at least it’s not Russia.

And none too soon.

Domenech has pulled a rabbit out of the hat in Gignac.

Gignac put the match to rest with a sumptuous third.

Benzema got the start up front along with ever-presents Thierry Henry and Sidney Govou.

Stalwarts like Toulalan and L. Diarra made way for Sissoko and A. Diarra.

I think Sissoko missed an opportunity.

The right back, Rod Fanni of Rennes, was wearing the number 7 jersey. He was fantastic.

Jimmy Briand was another player from Rennes who was knocking on the door of the national team.

But Fanni got the chance this time and took it beautifully.

He looked excellent.

Up front it was a case of three forwards three goals.

Benzema with a diving, bullet header.

Henry from the spot, emphatically.

And Gignac with sublime majesty from distance.

Lloris got caught out for the goal.

And it ended 3-1.

Special shout out to Govou who has played in these two wins.

Henry is doing ok as captain. His was a well-taken penalty. He looks good in the build-up.

France have a lot of power with Benzema and Gignac. I think Gignac is rightly ahead on form. He’s an instant classic.

Escude looked ok. Squillaci made me nervous once or twice.

Clichy was ok.

I thought Sissoko could have been more tidy with possession.

I though Alou Diarra was the better of the two, and I thought Malouda played pretty well.

I never say anything to my wife about football, so she surprised me last night when Malouda was on the screen, and she said, “There’s that guy you don’t like.”

It’s because he plays for Chelsea, I think. I can’t help it. I also think he peaked as a player before he ever played for France. I thought he looked really good as a young player for Lyon.

Doms has the side coming into form at just the right time.

When he was up against it, when he couldn’t possibly do without some results, he brought in Gourcuff, and it worked. He then added Gignac to that.

In those two players France suddenly have options, and even with Gourcuff out injured, Gignac has just taken over.

Fanni looks like another player who could slot in and do a job, maybe even in midfield. He looked useful.

Escude is vying with Abidal for a first-choice spot with Gallas.

What would we look like with Gourcuff and Ribery in for Malouda and Govou?

Yeah, neither is anybody else. Let’s still hope for a good showing.

As Jeff discussed, Serbia’s win over Romania means France has no chance to go top of the group. France’s win over Faroe Islands means that France is guaranteed the second-place playoffs. Our guys have nothing to play for but pride. Let’s hope they do it for that, at least.

This team seems to have developed some heart in the past couple of games, and I want that to continue. And now that Benzema so injudiciously expressed his ambivalence, he knows that all eyes will be upon him. Let’s hope he makes the most of it. (Oh, and unlike last time we faced Austria, there’s no Mexes to rugby tackle guys in the box. So we shouldn’t end up down 3-1. Right?)

Watch out on set pieces, boys, and give it your all.

Expected lineup is interested and filled with bench players Domenech wants to get a look at.

Lloris – Fanni, Squillaci, Escudé, Clichy – A. Diarra, Mou. Sissoko – Govou, Malouda – Henry (cap.), Benzema.

Because why wouldn’t Domenech test out new players today? (I mean, besides the fact that he’s Domenech.)

“Serbia secured qualification in style, with Nikola Zigic, Marko Pantelic, Zdravko Kuzmanovic and Milan Javanovic (2) on target in a 5-0 win over Romania in Group 7.”

Ouch.

We were bettered in the group, but we also won 5-0.

Goals from:

Gignac
Gignac
Gallas
Anelka
Benzema

5-0, and it was almost convincing.

Gignac was the star man. If you have anyone trying to tell you that Gignac is not a top man, don’t listen.

Gignac turned on the style against the minnows: 3 goals in two matches.

Star man.

And that has to make Doms look at least a little bit good, if only for a short while.

Gignac’s understudy, Benzema, also came on to nick a goal.

Was France playing 4-3-3? Or were we playing 4-4-2? Where was Henry? And what was Anelka doing dropping deep so much. Is Anelka our answer to Dennis Bergkamp?

But Anelka also nicked a goal. Goal-poacher William Gallas nicked one. Could’ve had another.

Abidal did ok at the back.

The side looked ok. Ribery could have added something.

Who do we play next?

FRANCE: Mandanda – Sagna, Gallas, Abidal, Evra – Govou, L. Diarra, Toulalan, Henry (cap.) – Anelka, Gignac
ILES FÉROÉ: Mikkelsen – Danielsen, Gregersen, Eliasen, Davidsen – A. Olsen, S. Olsen, Benjaminsen, Loekin – Jakobsen – Hansen

I was willing to bet my house yesterday that we’d be playing two DMs, and guess what? I would have won.

Sigh. Domenech will never change, will he?

(Pretty sure that’s a rhetorical question.)

4-4-2, with Abidal in central defense, Govou starting on the right, and Gignac and Anelka up front.

Come on, guys. Goals. Lots of goals. Even with this lineup, you can do it.

In the US, the game is going shown on FSC, but not on TV5. If you have a working stream or thoughts on the game, leave them in the comments.

Allez les bleus!

From Prost Amerika Soccer:

FIFA have already fined the Serb FA $40,000 for incidents in all their previous world cup matches against France, Austria and Romania, and now they have finally lost patience.

Once more, the authorities have stepped in ahead of a match with Romania. FIFA has warned the Serbs that any further violence on Saturday or against Lithuania four days later could have serious consequences and lead to points deductions.

“The FIFA disciplinary commission reminds the Serbian Football Federation (Fudbalski savez Srbije) that the recurrence of such incidents could lead to drastically more serious sanctions, and that includes the subtraction of points in the current qualifiers,” read a letter from FIFA posted on the FsS website.

Any volunteers to dress up like a Serb and go hang out at the match? Maybe with a flare or two?

(Kidding. I’m almost completely kidding.)

Here’s a must-read from Amy Lawrence, especially for the comments that follow:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2009/oct/07/raymond-domenech-france-world-cup

And also:

Has anyone else noticed that Fox Soccer Channel is advertising that they’re carrying both of France’s upcoming matches?

Sweet.

And thank goodness for Group 9, because the worst, if France can win at home against the Faroe Islands, will be advancing to the playoffs. As a couple commenters have clarified, the 2nd-place finisher in France’s group will not be the worst 2nd-place finisher, so we don’t have to worry about finishing 2nd, but missing the playoffs. Group 9 is finished, and France already have enough points against non-Faroe-Islands teams, 12, to avoid the distinction of being the worst of the 2nd-place finishers. (This assumes that Faroe Islands will finish last in Group 7).

That leaves France needing to stay ahead of Austria to qualify for the playoffs, or pass Serbia to win the group.

Serbia’s last two matches are against Romania and Lithuania, and there’s certainly a possibility that they’ll blow their chance of winning the group. Mathematically, France can still win it, although that’s hard to imagine after the most recent debacle: collecting only two points from the two qualifiers in September.

Here are France’s results and fixtures:

The playoffs will be played over two legs on the 14th and 18th of November. Eight of the nine 2nd-place finishers will go into a draw for the playoffs. Four of those eight will advance to the World Cup in 2010.

Gourcuff and Ribery both out injured

When a team is in as much disarray as France, I fear any changes can crush what little confidence and cohesion there is. With Gourcuff and Ribery both out, the promising system that Domenech had stumbled upon (keeper; Sagna, Gallas, Defender, Evra; Diarra, Toulalan; Ribery, Gourcuff, Henry; Striker) is out the window.

But despite that, and despite Domenech and his disappointing record, France will surely make the playoffs at a minimum.

They’ve earned 4 wins and 3 draws to post 15 points on the board. By France’s high standards, it’s disappointing, but they’re still positioned to make the World Cup. A lot of nations would be happy to be in a position to qualify for the World Cup, and with that perspective, I’m focused on hoping that France will find a way to qualify.

The Domenech era has really been taking a toll on morale. The extreme cases might want to see France fail, to have a catharsis from the frustration Domenech’s time in charge, and although that might be a fringe sentiment, there’s still widespread disillusionment.

When my in-laws from France were visiting in August, they wouldn’t even watch France’s World Cup qualifier with me. When my wife’s friend from school visited; and he’s quite an amiable guy, normally, with a limited penchant for hyperbole; but he said, “I hate Domenech.” Former France player Dugarry had quotes in the paper today about how he thinks Domenech has done everything wrong, and can’t make a single right decision. Taken literally, that’s a bit overboard, but there’s a general understanding of his sentiment.

If France do qualify for the World Cup, it’s going to require some outstanding performances between now and then to get a lot of French supporters to care. That’s the kind of catharsis I’m looking for. A string of 7-0 victories. Come on, who wouldn’t enjoy that, no matter how you feel about Domenech?

I’m a bit of a lone voice in support of the system that Domenech has stumbled on, but having two of the key players out is a worry.

Hopefully he’ll just play a straight-forward attacking lineup, and France will win against Faroe Islands by a comfortable margin. Anelka and Benzema are in decent form for their clubs. They should be able to score some goals. Henry and Gignac are other good options. Maybe all 4 of them shouldn’t play at the same time, but there could be plenty of simple systems that could use 3 of them.

Domenech will probably line them up something like this:

Henry Gignac Anelka
Malouda L.Diarra Toulalan
Evra Escude Gallas Sagna
Lloris

That should at least get us to the playoffs, and I, for one, meanwhile will be keeping an eye on the result of the Serbia-Romania match, as naive as that might sound.

Update: I had overlooked Malouda. He’ll probably get in there ahead of Govou, so I updated my lineup, although the team might be unbalanced on the right, at the least the way Doms sees it. He loves having Govou wide right, so maybe I was right the first time.